Improvement in doors for railway freight-cars



PATENT @Enron HORACE L. CLARK, OF RAHWAY, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN DOORS FOR RAILWAY FREIGHT-CARS.

SpecicationV forming part of Letters PatentNo. 118,514, dated August 29,.1871.

To all whom it may concern: A,

Be it known that I, HORACE L. CLARK, of Rahway, in the county of Unionand State o f New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Car- Door;and Ido hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to makeand use the saine, reference being had to the accompanying drawingforming part of this specification.

My invention consists in certain improvements connected with car-doors,as hereinafter fully described and subsequently pointed out in the claim5 also, in an arrangement of devices for securing the lower edge of thedoor, held by vertical rods at the upper edge against being forcedinward and allowing the grain to escape when loaded and swinging'loosely when unloaded or carrying general merchandise.

Figure l is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a car-door having myimprovements applied. Fig. 2 is a transverse section, and Fig. 3 is afront elevation of the outside of the door.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A is the door, consisting of one or more boards or planks, suitablyconnected together, resting on the floor at one edge and against the endwalls of the opening in the car on the insides, but not rising as highas the top of the opening, and connected at the upper edge by plates orbars B, having suitable holes, with the guide-rods C, for

raising to the top of the car. These doors, commonly arranged in thisWay, have a small opening, D, through them, near the bottom, fordischarging the grain by shoveling it through said.

opening into a spout resting on the car side. A large amount of grain isscattered over the spout and lost by striking against the walls of saidopening and the spout outside, and flying away over the spout to theground. l therefore propose to attach a short cloth spout, E, to thedoorV at this opening, to extend suiiiciently beyond the door over thespout commonly used to prevent such scattering, which it does mosteffectually.

When the hole D is to be closed by the slide F the iiexible spout E isfolded back into the hole, as indicated at G and H. A bar, I, may beplaced across the hole at the inside of the door to prevent the spoutfrom being turned outside in or being pushed in too far. Y

I propose to have the rods C, on which the door slides upward, spring orincline outward, and form a shoulder at K for the eye-plates B to dropback upon when the door is raised, to hold it snugly' up against theceiling', the other edge being secured by buttons L.

Commonly these doors are left free, or not provided at the lower edgesagainst being pushed inward, which is objectionable, because they aresometimes forced in by accident and work upward by the jarring ofthecar, and the grain escapes; or, when carrying general merchandise, theymay not always be held snugly against the side of the car, and swing andrattle. I therefore propose to have the lower edges provided with boltsor stud-pins M and holes N, iitted in the car-iioor suitably to receivethe bolts and hold the door snugly against the car side. The holes aremade to extend through the canfloor, so that they will not lill up withgrain or other matter 5 and, in connection with the door so arranged, Iprovide the holding-p=twls X or pins to hold the doors against rising.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent- 1. The combination, with door A, apertured at D andprovided with flexible spout E, of the slide F and bar I, to enable saidaperture D to be closed and the spout to be folded in the saine planewith the door.

2. The slides B, stationary rods O, and buttons L, combined with andapplied to the door A, as described, so as to enable said door to beturned up and supported against the ceiling, as shown and set forth.

3. rlhe stud-pins M on the inner edge of the door and passing into holesN in the car-door, combined with the guides B and pawls X, bearingagainst the upper edges of the door to hold it rmly in position.

The above specitic'ation of my invention signed by me this 7th day ofJune, 1871.

HORACE L. CLARK.

Witnesses:

GEO. W. MABEE, T. B. MosHER.

